When I first began the UCD Information and Learning Technologies program my dream was to find a position within my school where I could develop relationships and foster skills in students over multiple years. My experience as a middle school teacher, while rewarding in so many ways, was always bittersweet as the relationship my students and I formed over a year of working together was often weakened as they moved to other grades and subject areas. My belief was that, by becoming a librarian, I could develop the same working bonds with students and support them and their learning more effectively across grade levels and curricular areas. What I discovered, however, was something much more.
Working within the information and media sciences is a study in the art of learning. Rather than focus on the attainment of specific facts and knowledge information literacy teaches skills that support learning and success in all curricular areas. Already my time within this program has drastically changed my view on education. I now view learning activities and my own instruction as a means to teach strategies to support my students’ ability to question and lead inquiry rather than solely increasing their knowledge in a certain topic area. This program, in the same way, has pushed me to widen my view on how I learn and how to translate this knowledge, and the skills that come from discovering this, into my activities both in the classroom and in my personal growth.
I feel, thanks to this program, that I have now become a much more balanced and effective teacher. I now actively apply strategies of backwards planning so that the lessons I created individually and collaboratively focus on the learning benchmarks, as well as the academic outcomes, set forward by our curriculum and the utilizes resources that will helps students to achieve these goals. At the same time I continue to follow the two primary goals I set forward for myself when I first began this program: to remain passionate and effective in my teaching and to continuously refine my management skills to more effectively utilize the time I have with all the individuals, both adult and student, who work with me. In the future I hope to apply these skills, which I am refining in my daily interaction with students and colleagues, to benefit my entire school as I transition from the role of classroom teacher and grade level leader to a school-wide supporting teacher-librarian.
